The present invention relates to a control apparatus of an image filing system for performing image search and image processings.
In a conventional image filing system, an image of a manuscript such as a document, a drawing, etc. is read, suitably edited, recorded onto an optical disk and is managed.
In such a conventional image filing system, image information data provided by reading the manuscript image are compressed and recorded onto the optical disk. A required image is searched by reading out the recorded image information and displaying it on a CRT monitor, and is outputted onto a sheet of paper to be recorded by a printer, and various kinds of image processing such as edit, etc. are performed as needed.
Normally, the manuscript image is read at a resolution of about 200 to 400 dpi (dot/inch). When one page of a normal manuscript having size A4 for example is read at a resolution of 400 dpi, the obtained image information becomes about 2 MB(megabyte) but and becomes several tens of KB(kilobyte) even when the data are compressed, which still is a great amount of data. The resolution of the CRT monitor is about 100 to 150 dpi and the amount of data of one picture becomes about 125 KB.
Accordingly, in the above example, when the image of each page is displayed on the CRT monitor at the image information searching time, a great amount of information on each page is read out of the optical disk and is data-extended to an image information about 2 MB mentioned above, and further it is necessary to thin out the data-extended image information to an image information of about 125 KB in conformity with the resolution of the CRT monitor. Therefore, the time required to perform the respective operations becomes longer and it takes much time to perform the search processing.
Normally, an operator outputs the searched image onto a sheet of recorded paper by a printer and executes various kinds of image processing as needed. However, when it takes too much time to perform the search processing, the operator cannot rapidly perform the various kinds of image processing.
Conventionally, the following two systems for rapidly performing the various kinds of image processing have been used to perform the search processing at a high speed. Namely, one of the two systems, in the above example, comprises a processing section for performing only the image search processing in which the image information read out of the optical disk is not data-extended to the original image information having 2 MB, but is simultaneously extended and thinned out, directly outputting the image information having 125 KB in conformity with the resolution of the CRT monitor.
In accordance with such a system, the time after the image information is read out of the optical disk until the image information is displayed, is reduced and thereby the search processing is performed at a high speed.
However, since it is necessary to dispose a special processing section for performing only the image search processing in this system, the construction in hardware for such a section becomes complicated.
Further, in such a system, when various kinds of processing are performed with respect to the searched image information of, the original image information about 2 MB mentioned above is required so that the same image information is read out of the optical disk again and is data-extended by another processing section different from the above processing section to obtain the required image information.
Since the processing sections are separately used in the cases of the image search and image processing, it is necessary to switch executing modes such as image search mode and image processing mode. Therefore, the operator has to perform the switching operation of the executing modes each time, in accordance with the processings, and has to sequentially perform the processings in either one of the executing modes so that the operator cannot perform a parallel processing such as the search of another image during the image processing for example and various kinds of sequential processing cannot be rapidly performed.
On the other hand, in the other system for performing the search processing at a high speed, the image information of about 2 MB mentioned above and the image information of about 125 KB are both recorded onto the optical disk, and the latter image information is read out when the image is searched, and the former image information is read out when various kinds of image processings are performed.
In accordance with this system, since the image information read out of the optical disk is reduced when the image is searched, the processing time required to read out the image information and perform the data extension is shortened, thereby rapidly performing the search processing at a high speed.
However, even in such a system, similar to the first system, it is necessary to switch the executing modes such as the image searching mode and the image processing mode.
Therefore, the operator has to perform the switching operation of the executing modes and cannot perform the parallel processing of the image search and image processing so that various kinds of sequential processing cannot be rapidly executed.